Squad news

ANTONIO TOMAS COULD PLAY ON SUNDAY

17 Sep 2009Lotina tested the squad that will play on Saturday against RCD Espanyol (18h00 CET); the main novelty seems to be Antonio Tomás playing in midfield, though the alternative is not definitive yet.

On Wednesday’s morning Lotina worked with his squad behind closed doors at the Riazor, the Basque manager made the first experiments ahead of the liga confrontation against RCD Espanyol. All appoints that Depor’s coach is thinking of repeating the 4-2-3-1 system implemented during the first two matchdays, but there was a novelty.

That novelty was to see Antonio Tomás taking the place of Juan Rodriguez performing alongside Juca in midfield. The 24-year-old player has been out of action since he suffered a new hamstring problem during the past season visit to Athletic Bilbao, and the game against the Catalans could be his first game with Depor in four months. However theses experiments are not definitive and it will be necessary to wait to the last sessions of the week in order to see if the coach’s plans are confirmed.

The other two novelties of the training session were the absence of Rodolfo Bodipo and the implementation of a new plan to prevent injuries. Bodipo asked for permission to skip the training and was the only one that stayed out of the tests made by Lotina. Meanwhile, physical coach Eduardo Domínguez began a plan of trainings with the goal to avoid the injuries, something that affected the team in punctual moments of the past season.

At Espanyol, besides to the absence of De La Peña (muscular injuey), it has been informed that Shunsuke Nakamura will probably miss Saturday’s game due to an ankle sprain. The Japanese is evolving according to the expectations of the doctors, but it will be too soon for him and now it’s expected that he will miss the clash at the Riazor.